Samer Khasawneh

Construct Validation of an Arabic Version of the Learning Transfer System Inventory for Use in Jordan

The purpose of this study was to translate and validate an Arabic version of the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) for use in Jordan. The study also investigated the perceptions of transfer system characteristics across selected individual and situational variables. The LTSI was administered to 450 employees of 28 different public and private sector organizations operating in Jordan. Principal axis factoring with oblique rotation was used to uncover the underlying structure of the Arabic version of the LTSI. Results showed a latent factor structure that is highly consistent with the English version of the LTSI. Results also indicated that transfer system perceptions differed across levels of education, years of experience, types of training, choice of training, sector of the organization and task of the organization. Implications for the field of human resource development are also provided.

GMCAR: Grid-based multipath with congestion avoidance routing protocol in wireless sensor networks

Recently, the interest in wireless sensor networks has been magnetized in the delay sensitive applications such as real-time applications. These time critical applications crave certain QoS requirements as though end-to-end delay guarantee and network bandwidth reservation. However, the severe resource constraints of the wireless sensor networks pose great challenges that hinder supporting these requirements. In this paper, we propose a Grid-based Multipath with Congestion Avoidance Routing protocol (GMCAR) as an efficient QoS routing protocol that is suited for grided sensor networks. We employ the idea of dividing the sensor network field into grids. Inside each grid, one of the sensor nodes is selected as a master node which is responsible for delivering the data generated by any node in that grid and for routing the data received from other master nodes in the neighbor grids. For each master node, multiple diagonal paths that connect the master node to the sink are stored as routing entries in the routing table of that node. The novelty of the proposed protocol lies behind the idea of incorporating the grids densities along with the hop count into the routing decisions. A congestion control mechanism is proposed in order to relieve the congested areas in case of congestion occurrence. Simulation results show that our proposed protocol has the potential to achieve up to 19.5% energy saving, 24.7% reduction in the delay and up to 8.5% enhancement in the network throughput when compared to another QoS routing protocol. However, when compared to the basic grid-based coordinated routing protocol, it achieves 23% energy saving. In addition, the proposed protocol shows its superiority in achieving better utilization to the available storage.

The Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Organizational Commitment The Case for Vocational Teachers in Jordan

The purpose of this article is to determine the relationship between transformational leadership of vocational school principals on vocational teachers’ organizational commitment. A random sample of 340 vocational teachers responded to a three-part instrument (the transformational leadership questionnaire, the organizational commitment questionnaire and a demographic section). Means, standard deviations, Pearson correlations and stepwise regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The findings indicated that a strong, positive and significant relationship exists between transformational leadership (overall) and the organizational commitment dimension. Furthermore, the relationship between each component of transformational leadership and organizational commitment was found to be moderate, positive and significant. Finally, it is suggested that more workshops and training courses in transformational leadership should be sponsored by the Ministry of Education in Jordan to promote organizational commitment among vocational teachers.

Shared Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour in Jordanian Public Universities: Developing a Global Workforce for the 21st Century

This article reports on an investigation of the impact of shared leadership on organizational citizenship behaviour among faculty members in Jordanian public universities. A sample of 558 faculty members employed by three public universities in Jordan participated in the study. The results indicated that shared leadership is moderately practised in Jordanian public universities based on the perceptions of faculty members. Moreover, faculty members exhibited moderate organizational citizenship behaviour as represented by its overall mean score. Finally, results of the study indicated that shared leadership explained 36.4 per cent of the variance in organizational citizenship behaviour, meaning that the practice of shared leadership in the workplace has prediction power of 36.4 in organizational citizenship behaviour of faculty members. The study ended by offering a number of practical and theoretical implications for the field of study.

Kouzes and Posner’s Transformational Leadership Model in Practice: The Case of Jordanian Schools

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which Kouzes and Posner’s Transformational Leadership Model is being practiced by school principals as perceived by their teachers in Jordanian schools. Means, standard deviations, t-tests, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were utilized in this study. Results indicated that transformational leadership is being moderately practiced and applied by Jordanian principals. Furthermore, statistical results indicated that gender and school type had an influence on teachers’ perceptions in favor of female teachers and basic schools respectively. Finally, there were no significant differences among the three experience level groups of teachers (new hiring, middle career, and long experience) in their perceptions of each dimension of Kouzes and Posner’s model.

Perceptions of student teachers towards the effectiveness of co‐operating teachers, school principals and university supervisors participating in the teacher education program in Jordan

The primary purpose of this study was to determine perceptions of student teachers regarding the effectiveness of university supervisors, school principals and co‐operating teachers participating in the teacher education program at the Hashemite University in Jordan. A total of 120 student teachers participated in the study by completing the researcher‐designed questionnaires. The results indicated that participants perceived favorable high agreement toward the effectiveness of university supervisors and co‐operating teachers and moderate agreement toward the effectiveness of school principals. Furthermore, based on t‐test and ANOVA analysis, significant differences were not found in student teachers’ perceptions based on gender and grade‐point average (GPA). The study ended by offering a number of practical and theoretical implications for the field of study.

Professional identity of faculty members at higher education institutions: a criterion for workplace success

This research aimed to develop and validate a psychometrically sound and convenient measure of the professional identity questionnaire (PIQ) and to determine the level of professional identity among faculty members employed by higher education institutions in Jordan. The PIQ was administered to a sample of 551 faculty members employed by three universities in Jordan. The data set was subject to exploratory factor analysis utilising principal axis factoring with oblique rotation to uncover the underlying structure of the PIQ. Four factors emerged with 25 items retained. These factors were self-related identity, skill-related identity, work-related identity and student-related identity. Internal consistency reliability coefficients for these factors ranged between 0.89 and 0.94. The results indicated that faculty members possessed high levels of self-related and skill-related identities, moderate levels of work-related identities and low levels of student-related identities. The study ended with a number of theoretical and practical recommendations for the field of study.

Using the Training Reactions Questionnaire to Analyze the Reactions of University Students Undergoing Career-Related Training in Jordan: A Prospective Human Resource Development Approach.

The primary purpose of the present study was to validate Morgan and Caspers training reactions questionnaire (TRQ) for use in Jordan. The study also investigated the reactions of university students to career‐related training programs. Another purpose of the study was to determine the impact of certain aspects of training programs on the overall satisfaction of university students with the quality of the programs. The validated TRQ was administered to a purposive sample of 304 participants who completed at least two training programs. Results showed that the TRQ is valid for use in Jordan. Results also indicated that participants exhibited high levels of satisfaction with all aspects of the training programs completed. Further, based on regression analyses, results indicated that utility of training had the highest explained variance followed by course materials and course structure. Finally, the study provided a number of practical and theoretical implications for the field of study.

Curriculum orientations of pre-service teachers in Jordan: a required reform initiative for professional development

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the curriculum orientations of pre-service teachers at a university in Jordan. Rigorous translation procedures were utilized to validate an Arabic version of the Curriculum Orientation Inventory (COI) for use in Jordan. The validated COI was administered to a sample of 259 pre-service teachers who were enrolled in the teacher education program offered by the Hashemite University. Principle axis factoring with oblique rotation resulted in a latent factor structure highly consistent with the English version of the COI. Results also indicated that pre-service teachers valued all the curriculum orientations to various degrees. In more specific terms, they highly valued the Cognitive Process orientation followed by the Social Reconstruction orientation and the Humanistic orientation. Lastly, gender differences were detected only for the Cognitive Process orientation with males valuing this orientation higher than did females.

Decision-Making Styles of Department Chairs at Public Jordanian Universities: A high-expectancy workforce

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the decision-making styles of department chairs employed by three public institutions in Jordan. A total of 95 department chairs participated in the study by completing the General Decision-Making Styles survey. The results indicated that department chairs under study have the rational decision-making style as their primary style (following a systematic approach to evaluate options and arrive at one optimal solution) and the dependent style as their backup style (consult with others in the organization when making important decisions). Moreover, there were no significant differences between decision-making styles and the proposed demographic variables (faculty and experience). Finally, several recommendations were suggested for the field of study.